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When former Virginia Tech tight end Dalton Keene announced he was forgoing his final season of eligibility and entering the 2020 NFL Draft back in January, some had their doubts about Keene.
There were some who believed Keene would be best served to return to Blacksburg for his final season. While others wondered how much his stock would improve.
The true answer was Keene probably realized he wouldn’t be adequately featured in Virginia Tech’s offense and decided to go ahead and put his name into the NFL Draft.
It was the right move.
Keene was a third-round pick by the New England Patriots in last month’s draft.
New England desperately needed tight ends after struggling in 2019 in the first year of the post-Rob Gronkowski era. So, legendary head coach, Bill Belichick, doubled up on tight ends in the third round with Devin Asiasi and Keene going 10 picks apart.
Unfortunately for the rookie tight ends, they won’t have Tom Brady in 2020.
Expect Keene to be a Belichick favorite. Keene is extremely versatile and can serve a number of roles for Josh McDaniels and New England’s offense. He will also likely show Hokie fans how underutilized Keene was in Blacksburg.
We already knew that, right?
Now, Keene has officially signed his contract.
The Patriots and third-round TE Dalton Keene have agreed to terms on his rookie contract, per source. That leaves just top pick S Kyle Dugger to sign from their 10-man draft class.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) May 11, 2020
Unofficially, Keene’s contract is expected to be a four-year deal worth a total of $4.5 million over the life of the contract, per Over The Cap. Keene’s on the books for a cap hit of just over $818K in 2020.